Adding Fruit To A Beer Recipe

[126mark]

I made a raspberry stout for Christmas. Brewed a normal stout (25 litres) bottled half as normal, then added a couple of lbs of raspberries (which I'd pasteurised) to the other half. Left it for a week then bottled. There's a strong raspberry flavour, but quite an unpleasant aroma. The base stout tastes fine, if a little more bitter than previous brews. Most of the raspberry is still sitting in my shed. I'm hoping it will mature out and settle down. I might have a go at elderflower beer as suggested above, but otherwise will be leaving fruit beers well alone.

[Steve1262]

Cheers guys.

We tried a while ago reducing rhubarb to a syrup by boiling and adding it directly to the finished beer pulled from the cask but we had to add loads to a pint before it even started to taste remotely of rhubarb and all it did was turn the beer cloudier the more we added.

Total failure.

[Wezzel]

Come spring, I'll be doing another brew with fresh elderflowers as they work very well.

I doubt whether you'll need more than 1 bottle of the essense as it goes a long way.
I'd do a test tasting with a sample to calculate amount of essence / L before adding to the the whole batch.

Good thinking. I think I'll put a few drops in a finished pint this time and then I'll know how much to add to the keg next time.

[themadhippy]

Brings back memorys of the long gone kitchen brewery in huddersfield,wonder if you could trace the guys behind it to help?

[micromaniac]

i,d be wairy of this one rhubarb is a very acidic friut ,could go tits up in the fermentation thingy

[greenxpaddy]

So adding to a wit is a good idea as its already cloudy!

[smeggedup]

has anybody used rasberries or blackberries ?

[Laripu]

I'm planning a raspberry/cherry stout, probably this coming weekend, roughly on 126mark's plan. I'll be brewing a 23L stout batch to about 1.055, but with low bitterness (25 BU). When the primary is done, I'll siphon out onto 3 lbs of cherry puree and 5 lbs of frozen raspberries. I expect a new primary fermentation to start, and when that's finished, I'll siphon off and lager for a month.

Because I want it to end up slightly sweet, I'm using a pound of caramel 120, and a pound of caramel rye. Also, a high-ish mash temperature: 155°F. The yeast is WLP002, a British ale yeast that leaves residual sweetness.

It'll be an 8% black liquid lollipop.

[Laripu]

Steve1262: I like your ginger brew buddy. He reminds me of my erstwhile buddy Doc, who is my avatar. He's been catting around cat heaven for 7 years or so. I still miss him. He's joined by Pawdl, Sami, and Stanley, all of whom have left holes in my heart. RIP.

Their position has been filled by Petey the cat, who does an excellent job of purring and head-bumping and being petted.

Every one of them a ginger !!

[orlando]

has anybody used rasberries or blackberries ?

Have a look at this brewday. I say in the final post that I would mash a little higher for more residual sweetness and I've decided that next time (trust me this is so good there will be a next time) I will go up to 100g per litre with the raspberries, but this time I will buy when there is a glut and freeze them myself until next Spring.

[critch]

I was thinking about adding peach essence or flavouring when kegging but it is only available in tiny one ounce bottles at £2 a pop. It would work out more expensive that buying the real thing!

ive got it on very good authority that this is exactly what hall and woodehouse do
http://www.kanegrade.com/products/fruit ... -(esters)/

[jmc]

has anybody used rasberries or blackberries ?

Have a look at this brewday. I say in the final post that I would mash a little higher for more residual sweetness and I've decided that next time (trust me this is so good there will be a next time) I will go up to 100g per litre with the raspberries, but this time I will buy when there is a glut and freeze them myself until next Spring.

Hi Orlando
I had a look at your Raspberry brew. Looks lovely.
I'm thinking of trying this with frozen raspberries 2 x 400g for £4 at Sainsbury's at the moment

So 2.4Kg for a 24L brew would be £12

You mashed the raspberries, so how did you get on when siphoning off / bottling
Did you lose a lot to fruit /yeast / trub in fermenter?

Reason I ask is I'm doing a lambic experiment with apricots and finding it difficult to get fruit to settle.

[orlando]

You mashed the raspberries, so how did you get on when siphoning off / bottling
Did you lose a lot to fruit /yeast / trub in fermenter?

Reason I ask is I'm doing a lambic experiment with apricots and finding it difficult to get fruit to settle.

First of all I chilled down and this helped settle it down. I then boiled a very fine hop bag and tied this on the end of my auto syphon then racked off. As you will see from the pictures I wanted a really clear raspberry coloured beer so I fined the beer before bottling, worked really well. I lost not much more than I would normally lose once you take trub and pulp into account. Obviously it meant two transfers so you have to be as scrupulous as ever over sanitation and careful about aerating the beer, particularly so I think when the colour stability and fruit aroma is relatively fleeting compared to a "normal" beer as oxidation knocks it out quicker.

[Cazamodo]

Ive been wanting to make a strawberry beer for ages. But no idea when to add them since they seem to be one o the worst fruits to use!

I'm thinking of pureeing them and adding them to the fermented beer, then sticking it in the keg and cooling it so hopefully it wouldn't ferment out completely...

Luckily I have a laaaaarge amount of strawberries this year, and was looking at around 200g a litre. Well a good 5kg for a 25L batch anyway

Oh and the base would be a simple light wit

[orlando]

I've come to the conclusion that more is more with fruit pulp and although I haven't used strawberry (only raspberry) I suspect that the more delicate flavour and aroma requires that much more. My approach has been to pulp with a processor and add after fermentation is over. The reasoning is that if you heat them to kill bacteria you denature some of the flavour & aroma in doing so. You therefore have to factor in introducing bacteria to your beer. After fermentation you at least have a low pH, alcohol and a little bit of antimicrobial protection from the hops. It is a risk though and if you are bottling or kegging with a view to a secondary fermentation you can't use a bit campden tablet to help either. To date I have got away with it and if you rinse the strawbs in water or even spray with starsan before hand it might also help. Leave them in contact with the beer for up to a week though before racking off.

One final comment, drink it quick, the flavour and aroma fade quickly.